Employers recruiting STEM students would do well to provide them with information they most seek—that most closely associated with their pending job searches.

The top pieces of information for all STEM majors were current job openings, job descriptions for entry-level positions, and salary/compensation information, according to results of NACE’s Class of 2015 Student Survey. (See Figure 1.)

All STEM majors expressed a secondary interest in opportunities for training and development. In addition, engineering and engineering technology majors expressed the most interest in prospective employers’ products and services.

On the other hand, STEM graduates expressed little interest in current employees’ comments about the company, employers’ contributions to the community, and internship opportunities.

Job-seeking students were asked to rank their top three pieces of information they sought from employers during the job-search process from a provided list of eight items. The STEM students’ results are consistent with those from the Class of 2015 overall.

Results from Class of 2015 STEM graduates are featured in Students in Demand: An Insight Into Class of 2015 STEM Graduates. Highlights from the report are available on NACEWeb.

Figure 1: What STEM students are looking for in the job search

Comp. Science

Eng.

Eng. Tech

MathStatistics

Biology

Phys.Sciences

Percentage of first-place votes

Job openings

21.4%

19.8%

22.0%

35.9%

29.3%

18.6%

Job descriptions for entry-level positions

29.8%

27.3%

24.4%

15.6%

20.7%

23.7%

Salary/compensation

15.3%

16.3%

14.6%

14.1%

19.3%

20.3%

Training/development opportunities

13.0%

14.6%

12.2%

17.2%

15.7%

11.9%

Employer’s products/services

6.9%

11.6%

17.1%

6.3%

4.3%

6.8%

Internship opportunities

5.3%

2.8%

7.3%

1.6%

3.6%

8.5%

Employees’ comments about the company

6.1%

5.5%

2.4%

4.7%

2.9%

1.7%

Employers’ contributions to the community

2.3%

2.2%

0.0%

4.7%

4.3%

8.5%

Source: Students in Demand: An Insight Into Class of 2015 STEM Graduates, National Association of Colleges and Employers